The Fair Wage Folks on the Eureka Chamber of Commerce Disingenuous Scare Tactics

May 21, 2014

Eureka, CA:

“And they were wrong!” Those are the words of Professor Scott Meyers-Lipton of San Jose State University when talking about the gloom and doom forecasts by opponents of Measure D, which raised the minimum wage for the City of San Jose. One year since San Jose residents passed Measure D, raising the minimum wage, employment is up, more businesses have been created, existing businesses thrive (including restaurants), and work hours remain the same. Here, the Eureka Chamber of Commerce doom and gloom response to the Eureka Fair Wage Act perpetrates the same old lie- that paying workers fairly kills jobs. The facts prove the Chamber’s statement to be nothing more than fear mongering. The Eureka Chamber of Commerce is just flat out wrong, as it raises the same old tired objections that were erroneously made about San Jose’s successful Measure D.

The business and labor playing fields are not level now. The Eureka Fair Wage Act will help to make things more level, that’s right, fair. Huge corporations like Walmart and Target use slave labor in China, abusing millions of workers abroad and crushing local competition here in the U.S. Look at all the empty store fronts they have created in Eureka.

The empirical data all show that measures raising the minimum wage boost local business and strengthen local economies. It is a shame that the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, an entity supported by local tax dollars, is shilling for out-of-town corporations and acting against the peoples’ well-being- with no regard for the facts.